(Not applicable)
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to vehicle tracking, vehicle security, and load security, and more specifically, to a method and apparatus for tracking vehicles in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
2. Description of Related Art
Automatic vehicle location (AVL) methods are well known in the art, and are used to insure safety and reliability of vehicle traffic, for example by trucking fleet companies. One known method of AVL involves a periodic communications uplink from the vehicle to a remote host server, through which uplink the vehicle notifies the remote server of its current position. Such periodic uplinking and notification is communication intensive, particularly when large numbers of vehicles are involved, and particularly when, as is customary, satellite communications are involved.
A conventional method for vehicle and load security, referred to as Geo-Fencing, involves equipping a processor onboard a vehicle with information describing a prescribed geographic zone, or fence. Depending on the particular configuration, the vehicle processor will notify a remote dispatcher when the vehicle has either left an inclusion zone, or entered an exclusion zone. In response, the dispatcher can remotely shut down vehicle operation, preventing further deviation from the prescribed xe2x80x9cfence.xe2x80x9d Alternatively, public security authorities can be notified. This method is particularly attractive for hazardous material carriers, or carriers of high value goods vulnerable to theft. However, it is also communication intensive, and may not be as precise as required, for as long as the vehicle is within the zone, no fault is detected, regardless of which part of the zone the vehicle is in. For instance, a vehicle which has remained at the same location for a protracted period of time would not set off any alarms as long as it has not left the geographic fence. Such a vehicle, however, could conceivable be in troublexe2x80x94for example, hijacked, or detained for other mischief. Thus there is a long felt need, underscored by current terrorist threats, to provide more accurate tracking of vehicles, in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
In accordance with the invention, a method for providing information regarding the location of a vehicle relative to a travel route includes defining a zone whose location varies in time relative to the travel route, determining the location of the vehicle at multiple points in time, determining the relationship of one or more determined vehicle locations to the zone, and generating a notification signal when the determined relationship indicates that a vehicle location is outside the zone.
Further in accordance with the invention, a system for providing information regarding the location of a vehicle relative to a travel route includes a server for generating a matrix associated with the travel route, and a processing system, remote from the server, for generating position information and for comparing the position information with the position of a zone whose location varies over time, the processing device forwarding an alert to the server when the position information indicates that the position of the first processing system is outside the zone.
Further in accordance with the invention, a system for tracking one or more fleets of vehicles each having one or more vehicles includes at least one server for generating a geo-matrix associated with each route set, and a set of vehicle processing systems associated with each vehicle, each vehicle processing system being disposed in a vehicle of the fleet and generating position information regarding the position of said vehicle at predetermined time intervals relative to a propagating zone defined by the geo-matrix associated with the fleet, the vehicle processing system notifying the server when the vehicle is determined to lie outside a geographical region associated with the propagating zone.